John340 said..mathew said..
While on the subject of sharks....
Drum-lines... what the ?! ... all they do is _attract_ sharks, because they are baited. Putting them 500m offshore is just stupid. 10km maybe... dont put them close enough to bring the bigger predators closer to the shore.
Shark-nets... there is no definitive evidence that they work (how do you prove a negative?), and plenty of evidence they dont work (shark-bites inshore of the net).
Matt,
There has been one fatality and a handful of serious injuries on netted beaches due to shark attacks in NSW since netting begun ,90 years ago. There have been roughly 150 fatalities on un netted beaches in NSW since records began.It would appear based on these stats that while netting may not reduce all unprovoked shark interactions they have a significant effect in reducing fatalities.
Haha.. as an ecologist - and very much playing devil's advocate here..
It *could* be that the unnetted beaches are simply where most of the sharks live now. Looking at the NSW shark net map:
www.sharksmart.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/1240814/nsw-shark-program-2020-21-map.pdfAll the shark net beaches are concentrated around the Sydney area. This area of the coast could also be less attractive to sharks - due to for example a greater density of marine traffic scaring them off, or perhaps less food sources including seals (then again, there might be more seals, if there's less sharks), etc., which could explain the relative lack of attacks concentrated around the Sydney area.
Against this, you'd then have to weigh up the higher statistical probability of shark encounters due to more total person-hours in the water, which presumably is higher in the Sydney area - so on this basis you'd expect a counter greater frequency of attacks in this area.
As an ecological experiment - it is very poorly designed, haha.. and it might be difficult to test statistically.
Anyway - I like what someone said above - when I get into the shark's environment, well I accept that, basically.. And you have more than 100 times likelihood of being got by one than having a fatal road accident on the way to the beach.
I always figure - from a shark's eye perspective - a windsurfer with a massive sail, board silhouetted against the light most definitely looks very weird and probably does not look like food.
I think we're lucky here in NZ. Most of the sharks seem pretty chilled.
